When the World Was Buried in Ignorance, What Did Christ Do Then?

There came a time when the world seemed sunk and buried in ignorance of God. 

• After four thousand years the nations of the earth appeared to have clean forgotten the God that made them. 
• Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires had done nothing but spread superstition and idolatry. 

Poets, historians, philosophers had proved that, with all their intellectual powers, 

• they had no right knowledge of God, 
• and that man, left to himself, was utterly corrupt. 
• “The world, by wisdom, knew not God” (1Corinthians 1:21). 

Excepting a few despised Jews in a corner of the earth, 

• the whole world was dead in ignorance and sin. 
• And what did Christ do then?

He left the glory He had had from all eternity with the Father, and came down into the world to provide a salvation. 

• He took our nature upon Him, and was born as a man. 
• As a man He did the will of God perfectly, which we all had left undone; 
• as a man He suffered on the Cross the wrath of God which we ought to have suffered. 

He brought in everlasting righteousness for us. 

• He redeemed us from the curse of a broken Law. 
• He opened a fountain for all sin and uncleanness. 
• He died for our sins. 

He rose again for our justification. 

• He ascended to God’s right hand, 
• and there sat down, 
• waiting till His enemies should be made His footstool. 

And there He sits now, 

• offering salvation to all who will come to Him, 
• interceding for all who believe in Him, 
• and managing by God’s appointment all that concerns the salvation of souls.

Adapted Excerpt From

Christ is All

J.C. Ryle